In merchandising canned beverages, it is conventional to package multiple cans in a rectangular array, which may contain four, six, twelve, or twenty-four cans. Commonly, the cans are provided with a carrier gripping the individual cans and providing a handle or finger holes to facilitate carrying the gripped cans. Carriers made from thin sheets of resilient, flexible polymeric material, such as low density polyethylene, are used in countless numbers.
Typically, a beverage can has a flange-like chime at each end regarded as openable. A beverage can of an older style is made with two chimes and two openable ends. A beverage can of a newer style is made with one chime, at one openable end, which has a pull-tab or similar opening feature.
Commonly, and particularly when carriers made from thin sheets of polymeric material are used, such cans are shelved for retail sale in locations where dust or debris can collect on their openable ends. Therefore, for aesthetic and sanitary reasons, there has been a need for an inexpensive, effective way to prevent dust or debris from falling onto the openable ends of such cans.
Typically, such a carrier is applied in such manner that the carrier grips the cans at their side walls where their side walls meet their chimes, thereby to form a package. Typically, the carrier is formed with finger apertures that facilitate carrying the package with the cans in a generally upright orientation, in which the cans tend to be generally perpendicular to the carrier. Thus, when the package is carried, upward stretching forces on the carrier tend somewhat to stabilize the package.
Moreover, it has been proposed to provide such a carrier with an external handle and to apply the carrier in such a manner that the carrier grips the cans at their side walls away from their chimes, thereby to form a package. When the package is carried by such a handle, the package tends to be more floppy, as compared to a package formed typically and carried with the cans in a generally upright orientation.
This invention addresses the need for a way to prevent dust or debris from falling onto the openable ends of such cans, particularly but not exclusively when a carrier gripping such cans at their side walls away from their chimes is used.